Criminology and Criminal Justice

Entry requirements

A good honours degree in a related discipline is required. Students without a Masters degree in a relevant discipline will be required to undertake a taught research training programme in their first year. Students should submit a research outline which must be approved by the Course Director.

Months of entry

September

Course content

The School of Social Sciences provides a stimulating and supportive environment for postgraduate training. The emphasis is on small groups, close working relationships between students and supervisors, and development towards full professional participation in the subject area. Research in Criminology and Criminal Justice at Bangor is focussed on comparative study at a number of cross-cultural levels: national, international and rural-urban comparisons are three of the most important ways in which comparative criminological work is undertaken. For research students we are able to provide both a full research training programme and high quality expert supervision across a broad spectrum of subjects.

Research Areas

Criminology and Criminal Justice with specialisations in:

• Youth homelessness and crime
• Institutional child abuse
• Critical approaches to law, crime and criminology
• Sociology of Law
• Public opinion on crime and criminal justice
• Penal policy
• Rural criminology
• Law judges and jurors
• Procedural justice
• Popular legal culture, including film and TV
• Victimology
• Islamic extremism and terrorism
• Trust in police, courts and the legal profession
• Crime and Civic Society:
• Support for the police
• Political violence and terrorism
• Media and public opinion
• Begging in North Africa and South Asia
• Popular Legal Culture
• Violence in intimate relationship
• Rural criminology
• Postcolonial societies, crime and deviance
• Theoretical criminology
• Criminal Justice Systems
• Lay participation in the administration of justice

Current graduate students are conducting research on:

• Women’s accounts of their violent behaviour
• An ethnographic study of cannabis use in a North Wales community
• Identity fraud
• Social problems and juvenile delinquency in Malawi
• Restorative justice and rehabilitation
• Accommodating sex offenders after prison

Research Excellence Framework (REF) score

The 2014 Research Excellence Framework recognised that more than three-quarters of Bangor’s research is either world-leading or internationally excellent. Based on the University submission of 14 Units of Assessment, 77% of the research was rated in the top two tiers of research quality, ahead of the average for all UK universities.

Information for international students

For those whose first language is not English or Welsh, the minimum English language requirements is:

• IELTS: 6.5 (with no individual score lower than 6.0)
• Pearson PTE: 62 (with no individual score lower than 58)
• Cambridge English Test – Advanced: 176 (with no individual score lower than 169)

For information and further detailed guidance on entry requirements for International Students, including the minimum English Language entry requirement, please visit the Entry Requirements by Country pages on the International Education Centre section of our website.